Speaking from a hotel room in Iowa, Laura Beeman expressed confidence in the work going on back in Manoa.
Her immediate future in leading the University of Hawaii women’s basketball program was solidified with last week’s announcement of a two-year contract extension taking her through the 2025-26 season.
With the next four years covered, Beeman continued her travels focused on searching for players to stock future Rainbow Wahine rosters. Along the way, she’s packing along a sense of being ahead of the game with the current group preparing for the follow-up to a championship season.
The current Wahine are coming off a 20-10 campaign highlighted by the Big West regular-season and tournament titles in the spring and Beeman — now entering her 11th season as head coach — has already detected a carry-over into the summer.
“Now we’re in such a great place in our locker room, with our culture, it’s exciting because I’m already hearing and seeing things happen that weren’t happening at this point last year,” Beeman said on Friday in a Zoom session with local media. “So now to have them doing those things it’s like, ‘OK, we get it. We get the consistency factor.’ That’s exciting.”
While she travels the continent, Beeman has faith in her staff overseeing offseason workouts, which have been fueled in part by the end of the landmark season.
The Wahine closed the season with an 89-49 loss at Baylor in the opening-round of the NCAA Tournament. They trailed 38-29 at halftime before the Bears ran away after the break at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.
“When you play a team like Baylor and you play well for the first half and you kind of get your teeth kicked in the second half, it lit a fire under some of these girls that we have to take care of business earlier in the preseason than what has occurred in the past,” Beeman said.
“We can’t let games slip that we shouldn’t be losing so that we can get a better seed, so we can go into the tournament and not play the No. 1 seed, the No. 2 seed and give us ourselves an opportunity to win and advance.”
While the nonconference portion of next season’s schedule has yet to be announced in full, UH’s early-season slate will include a matchup with Stanford, which reached last season’s Final Four in Minneapolis. Beeman said the Cardinal’s trip was set up prior to last season and figures to provide a measuring stick for the team in the fall.
“I know that’s the excitement the girls are having in playing a team like Stanford — ‘OK this is the best gauge for where we are and where we need to go,’” Beeman said.
Beeman said UH will also have the return games in home-and-home series with Loyola Marymount and UNLV. The Wahine defeated LMU at the Stan Sheriff Center last December and lost to UNLV in Las Vegas.
Once they get back on the court, the absence of Big West Player of the Year Amy Atwell will no doubt be conspicuous when practices open in the fall. Point guard Nae Nae Calhoun has also moved on, transferring to Cal Baptist of the Western Athletic Conference.
The Wahine backcourt returns Daejah Phillips (10 points per game) and Olivia Davies (8.3) and added a transfer of their own with the return of former ‘Iolani standout and Big West Freshman of the Year Lily Wahinekapu from Cal State Fullerton. She’ll be joined by her sister, Jovi Lefotu, last season’s All-State Player of the Year.
While Atwell led the Wahine with 17 points per game last season, Beeman also noted her influence on opposing defenses.
“We feel like we have a really good group coming back obviously. You do not replace an Amy Atwell,” Beeman said. “It’s not the points I’m worried about with Amy, not at all. It’s the spreading of the floor.
“Amy spread our court so we could do different things with our guards. We have to find someone that can step up and shoot the ball so teams can’t sit in the paint and pack it in, which will take away from our guard play.”
